After spending the entirety of the general election campaign and the months following Labour’s defeat screaming hysterically about the Evil Tories and their supposed persecution of “the vulnerable” (funny how almost everyone in Britain is now in a state of permanent vulnerability, according to the Left), some of those protesting the Conservative Party conference in Manchester are now taking matters into their own hands.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered at lunchtime near to All Saint’s park on Oxford Road to protest against the Conservatives as the the party conference kicked off down the road.

As the rally reached Portland Street, a breakaway group surged to a fence that had been erected to close off Oxford Street and screamed ‘Tory scum’ repeatedly at a small group of delegates standing on the other side.

One of the delegates was speaking to the protesters when he was hit by the egg.

Bear in mind: this was not a government minister. This was not a Member of Parliament. This was not a fat, self-serving member of the hated establishment. This was a young person doing something which more of us should be doing, quite frankly – taking an interest in the future of his country, and participating in our democracy by joining and being active in a political party.

A whole third of the electorate did not bother to cast a vote at the 2015 general election, a year when we were actually celebrating the highest turnout since the Blair landslide of 1997. 66.1 percent of people turned up to do their democratic duty, but the remaining 33.9 percent of the population were left unmoved by the whole affair. The problem remains especially acute among younger voters.

The egging of this young Tory activist sends a message. It says “please take an interest in the future of your country and get involved in politics – but you’d better be damn sure to pick the Labour Party, the SNP or the Greens, otherwise we will label you Tory Scum and come after you”.

And it is not just political opponents in the firing line. The New Left are happy to train their fire on those whose job it is to report the news, and journalists have been harassed, abused and spat on by protesters in Manchester today.

“What was even more worrying were the protestors who surrounded me and Kate McCann from the Telegraph. Even when they were told we were journalists and nothing to do with the Conservative Party, people were telling me I still deserved to be spat on.

“This is a worrying development and it seems the abuse journalists receive online is now moving out and on to the streets”.

I’ve said it before, and I will no doubt have cause to say it many more times on this blog in the years ahead: the British political Left are losing their minds. Insufferably sanctimonious, convinced that they have a moral monopoly, and quick to tell those who think differently that they are morally deficient, evil accomplices to the persecution and the genocide of the poor. Intolerant, controlling, judgemental and downright nasty – the New Left thinks nothing of shouting down or intimidating opponents into silence.

The gulf between the Left’s pompous, overblown rhetoric and their actual record is unbelievable, and it stinks to high heaven. It is statist, left wing policies which reduce people to permanent clients of the state, keeping them perpetually dependent on benefits and vulnerable to any future changes in government spending. It is left wing policies which tell us that the greatness of Britain is measured purely in the output of our public services, and that our economic, military, cultural and diplomatic contribution to the world is either negligible, shameful or both.

And yet the New Left claim to have a monopoly on compassion, on morality itself. Nor are they content to direct their anger at right wing politicians and government ministers. They hold Conservative and other right wing voters guilty of the same moral failings, and consider ordinary members of the public – young Tory activists, small business owners in Brick Lane – to be fair targets for their campaigns of hate.

The rabid anti-austerity protesters tearing up Manchester right now claim to speak for a silent majority of people who were somehow thwarted by the general election result, but half of votes cast were for a party of the right (Conservatives, UKIP or the DUP). When the People’s Assembly rail against austerity, they are railing against the wishes of the British people. They are, in fact, expressing their hatred of the British people.

My mind keeps returning to this furious anti-Tory rant by a disappointed Labour supporter in the immediate aftermath of Ed Miliband’s general election defeat:

I am angry. So angry. And I will take that anger to the streets when I can. I promise this. Because I’ll be mostly okay under a Tory government; I have a job, a home and a wonderful network of family and friends around as support. But I didn’t vote for me. I voted for society. Tory voters did not. Tory voters could not give a shit about anyone but themselves and their wallets. And I hate each and every one of you for this.

Just like this Labour fanatic, the protesters in Manchester are simply incapable of understanding that anyone might vote for conservative policies for any reason other than narrow economic self interest.

When it comes to the argument that conservative policies might just raise living standards for everyone and deliver greater prosperity all round, they don’t want to hear it. Those who voted Conservative or UKIP are simply “scum”, people who actively delight in hurting the poor and vulnerable. And those who are actually members of the Conservative Party are considered the absolute scum of the earth.

Even if the protesters were 100 percent right about everything, and conservatives were piteously misguided in all of our beliefs – and we most certainly are not – how do the anti-Tory fanatics expect to win over right wing voters or disengaged non voters by shouting “Tory Scum!” at them, and pelting them with eggs?

Take a good look at these anti-Tory bullies. Take a good look at what they presume to do on our behalf, all in the name of the New Politics. They are the living, breathing embodiment of the madness engulfing the British Left.

Before I make a comment – I would have to say I was on that demo and totally condemn those who sought to intimidate Tory party members, engaged in egg throwing or spat at journalists.

However, you make such sweeping statements that the generalisations you make render the points you are making redundant. You talk about the British Left as if they are a collective when in reality they are fragmented groups that coalesce around a place on the political spectrum.

Condemn the idiots who spoiled what was, on the whole, a very good natured demo but recognise your generalisations are just a gentrified version of calling all tory members “Tory Scum”

One last point – tell the low paid workers who will be £2k worse off after changes to tax credits that Tory policies with raise living standards for all and I’m sure they won’t agree. Just telling someone something will be good for them doesn’t negate the harsh reality.

First off, thank you for one of the most considered and constructive comments I’ve had for some time.

I appreciate that reading this one piece in isolation could make it seem like I’m making generalisations. However, I have been documenting the gradual unravelling of the Left-wing mind for over a year on this blog, and I have been at pains to note the many times when intemperate rhetoric about the “Evil Tories” actively seeking to persecute and harm the vulnerable flows back and forth between supposedly serious left wing figures and grassroots supporters. For example, during the Labour leadership contest I attended an Andy Burnham rally where Burnham spoke about the Conservatives “terrorising” disabled people.

You can disagree with Tory ideology and policy all you like, and that’s fine. But most dispassionate outside observers would agree that this has been a pretty mild and non-ideological centre-right government so far, certainly not the red blooded ultra-Thatcherite dystopia that many (not just some) on the Left see.

I totally take your point that the people spitting and throwing things were a small minority. But they were just the pointy end of a much larger group who do believe that the Tories are “scum”, who think that anyone who does not hold left wing views is callous and selfish. This is becoming a real problem: many grassroots left wing people genuinely think that to be right wing is not just wrong, but actually evil. And too many left wing politicians have been happy to allow this kind of hyperbolic anti-Toryism, thinking it would benefit them electorally. It didn’t.

So now the British Left are in a similar position to the American Right, which tried to ride the Tea Party wave of furious Obama-hatred back to power. It didn’t work, and now the Republicans (having tolerated and encouraged blind hatred and incomprehension of the other side) are stuck with a party base that is extremely partisan, and views any attempt at compromise or reasoned debate as surrender.

The protesters shouting “Tory Scum” are just the tip of a much larger, more dangerous iceberg that threatens to sink the Left if it is not addressed.

Thanks again for your comment. Our politics can only work when there is reasoned debate like this, not just the furious sharing of memes and misleading infographics on social media.

“When it comes to the argument that conservative policies might just raise living standards for everyone and deliver greater prosperity all round, they don’t want to hear it.” That’s because we’ve been hearing it since the late 70s. It was bullshit then, and 36 years later it’s been proven to be bullshit.

Oh yes, capitalism and free market policies have not delivered prosperity and rising living standards for anyone around the world, have they? Far better to abandon pro-growth policies, embrace socialist redistribution and fixate on dividing the pie into ever-smaller but equal slices.